


Her Issues

by sidana



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidana/pseuds/sidana
Summary: A collection of wererat drabbles





	Her Issues

Disclaimer- not my characters, not my universe, I'll put everyone back where I found them when I'm done playing with them

A/N- I'v long had the hypothesis that Booby Lee came from a place more southern than the US South. 

Rafael felt Louie’s breath on his shoulder as he drifted off to sleep. Louie had gotten into another fight with Ronnie and hadn’t wanted to sleep alone.

He found himself thinking that the problem with his ex-wife had been she was too American. She had accepted the violence in his life; had accepted the blood and physical changes. But she couldn’t handle the need for closeness among his kind. The beginning of the end had been when she had screamed she was sick of being married to a faggot as he cradled an injured and naked Cris in his arms.

************

"Would you like to dance?"

"Definitely," she said, smiling as she left the table.

Claudia had met Viktor on a blind date set up by a friend, and now felt like she was inches away from falling in love with him. The guys at work kept teasing her about her Russian hockey player boyfriend. But how couldn’t she feel that way? He was smart, funny, kind to everyone, and treated her like she was a princess.

And it might seem shallow, but it helped that he was six-five. It was nice to go dancing and not put her chin atop the guy's head.

*************

"Robert!"

Bobby Lee heard that voice the second he cleared Johannesburg customs. People in Namibia heard it. He didn’t think much of his family, his mother the least of all. His baby sister was the only one worth anything, and the only reason why he went home at all.

It was when they had gotten into her car that her tirades started. Subject- how everything had gone down hill since the Blacks and the Coloured had gotten all uppity during the takeover. He made his face neutral. If he could survive the Vampire Council, he could survive Anissa’s wedding, couldn’t he?

**********

"I've got it. You stay put," Lillian said as she left the sofa to get the popcorn from the microwave. 

"So this is what it takes to get you to wait on me hand and foot?" Henry said. 

"Triage, love. You do need some coddling right now."

Henry had torn his ACL playing basketball last week. It had reminded them both that he wasn't twenty-five or even forty anymore. And it also had been an uncomfortable reminder for her of just how different she was from him. Lycanthropes weren't immortal, but they did age more gracefully than normal humans did.

************

 

“Hanging in there, Anissa?” Bobby Lee said.

“A little bit of nerves. Not about the wedding, but afterwards.”

“About the move?”

“Yes. I love my country, but I’m leaving it for both of our careers’ sake. You left, and now you don’t even sound like you anymore.”

“Is this better? Am I sounding like me again?” It almost took effort to lose the drawl and put an edge on his words.

“Yes. And thanks for coming back. I know it’s understating it to say you and Mum have problems.”

“When I said I’d always be there for you, I meant it.”

************

Claudia made her way to the players' families section at Savvis Center.

"Hi, you must be Vik’s Claudia," a woman said, grabbing to keep her son from tripping a pretzel vendor. "Marty said that Vik said we'd know you because his jerseys fit you right. I'm Anne, Marty’s wife."

"Good to meet you."

"I wish you could have made it for last game," she said.

"Me too, but I had a work emergency."

"I’m glad you made it tonight then."

Claudia took her seat. It was almost going to be weird just watching something without having to look out for threats.

*************

"Robert, you know the rehearsal dinner is tonight. Why aren’t you dressed?"

"I can’t be there, Mum. The full moon is tonight."

"You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t."

"Didn’t what?"

"Go and get yourself infected with lycanthropy. You know the only ones who do are the ones who already have AIDS. What will my friends think of it?"

"What will your friends think of it? I really don’t care. And you know, I really don’t care what you think of it either. The reason I’m here isn’t so you can do the big family portrait. It’s for Anissa’s sake alone."

**************

Ronnie on Louie-

 

At first it had been cute in its own way, even if it reminded her of going steady in high school. Louie’s hand would slip around hers when they were out walking together. If they were staying home and watching movies, then he always had to be curled up around her.

But he had never seemed to understand that he needed to ease up on all the contact at least once in a while. There were times when it seemed like he was almost physically smothering her, and she didn’t know how to explain it to him without hurting his feelings.

**************

Claudia-

"We’re playing skee ball?"

"You wanted to do something active, but my contract says no to so many things. No motorcycles, no go-carts,. I cannot even wear rollerblades. I think the coach would cover me in wrap bubble when I’m not on ice."

"You just know that I can’t allow myself to lose to a human? The guys at work would laugh at me."

"Is okay. I can’t allow myself to lose to a woman. My teammates would all laugh at me."

"In the process, I think we’ll end up with enough tickets for one of those giant stuffed bears."

"Da. Definitely."

***********

"So you’re fiancee David."

"And you’re Robbie, or Bobby Lee these days. Anissa’s been telling me about you."

"What did she say?"

"That you were the brother least likely to threaten me, but actually the most protective of them all. That you’re a lot smarter than you want people to know."

"She’s been spilling the family secrets. Anything she didn’t tell you?"

"How you got into international security."

"Quick answer: I’m old enough to remember how the government censored all the news, and it was a job that let me see how the world really was with my own eyes."

************

"Ready?" Bobby Lee said. 

"As ready as I ever am for these things," Rafael said as they left the airplane.

At least he wasn’t going to have to see her on this trip. He could forgive her for her weakness and fear. He could even forgive the way that she had made him seem like a drug lord and child molester in the courts’ eyes.

What he couldn’t forgive was how she let her hatred and fear of him bleed through in front of their son. He shouldn’t have to see that same fear spread from her eyes to his.

************

It was only a scratch. But then his claw had gone over the spot where she had cut her hand while cooking dinner the other night, and it had been just enough to pick the scab open until it bled again.

It was only a scratch. Even though it was supposed to be easier to catch it from Louie than it would be from one of Anita’s cats, that still shouldn’t have been enough, was it?

Ronnie sighed as she dug for the phone number for Planned Parenthood. They had anonymous tests there since it was usually a sexually-transmitted disease

***********

Louie-

First the test had come back negative, then the full moon had come and gone, and nothing had happened to Ronnie.

He was happy for her. The rodere didn’t live an easy life. And so many of them would look at Ronnie and only see the skills she had. They wouldn’t see her heart, and see how they were pushing her into something she couldn’t do. But a little part of him was sad about it. Maybe it would have drawn them closer together when lately it had seemed like she was looking for excuses to move away from him. 

**********

"Does your mother know about this?" Rafael said, looking at his son’s carefully spiked hair.

"Kind of. But she freaked about it, so I started bringing a thing of gel to school, and spiking it in the bathroom before class, and then rinsing my hair out after soccer practice. Better to keep quiet than to throw everything in her face."

He was supposed to be mad at the boy for it. In theory, he should present a united front with his ex-wife’s decisions. But he couldn’t help but be glad the boy seemed to be starting to think for himself

*********

“You’re dating a professional hockey player? They go and cheat on you every road trip they take. I’ve read it in the magazines.”

“Viktor’s not like that at all.”

“He doesn’t expect you to quit your job and go live in Montreal if he gets traded?”

“No he doesn’t. He’s proud me and of my career.”

“You always were a good judge of character. You know, if you really love him, I’ll say I feel like I don’t have enough grandkids yet.”

Claudia sighed. She really needed to get up the courage to tell her mother about her lycanthropy too


End file.
